Just a month ago, the busy streets of South Beirut were full of traffic, families strolling and young people in cafes, but now silence dominates the deserted Hezbollah stronghold, interrupted only by the sound of Israeli bombs.
Escalating Israeli attacks since late September, after nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border exchanges, have reduced much of the Lebanese capital’s once densely populated southern suburbs to rubble and forced many of its residents to flee.
Braving the smell of rotting flesh emanating from ruined buildings, a few young men stood guard, wearing black civilian clothes and occasionally riding their motorcycles around the ruins.
They observed a single car and the handful of displaced residents who arrived on foot, hurriedly checking their apartments or gathering some belongings before rushing back to safety.
“The young people told me not to stay too long because drones were flying overhead all the time and could strike at any moment,” said 32-year-old Mohammed during a short visit home to get more clothes.
He gave his first name only for security reasons and said he took off for the first time on September 27, days after the intensive Israeli air campaign on Lebanon.
That day, massive Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah’s elusive leader Hassan Nasrallah in the heart of the Iran-backed stronghold in southern Beirut, toppling several apartment buildings and raising fears of even greater violence.
“We left in a hurry, thinking we would never see our house again,” Mohammed said, adding that his neighbors had also fled.
The building was still standing, but many others were damaged or destroyed.
Attacks on infrastructure
Cracks snaked through nearby buildings, while torn asphalt and burst pipes leaked sewage and tap water.
Generators that could long compensate for daily power outages after five years of economic crisis were also blown to pieces.
“About 320 buildings were destroyed in Beirut and its suburbs” in less than a month of war, Mona Fawaz of the Beirut Urban Lab told AFP.
The destruction has surpassed the damage caused by Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, said Fawaz, who records cases of “urbicide”, the destruction of cities in conflict, and is now focusing on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
She accused Israel of “deliberately targeting what can sustain life,” including vital infrastructure unrelated to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah had completely rebuilt southern Beirut based on existing urban plans from before the 2006 war, displacing around 100,000 people from the area.
During that 33-day war, “surveys indicate 1,332 heavily damaged multi-storey apartment buildings, of which 281 were completely razed” in an area of about 20 square kilometers (8 square miles), Fawaz said.
The Burj al-Barajneh district, which was unscathed in 2006, has been severely damaged by the bombing this time.
Childhood memories
Once again, families from South Beirut are forced to seek refuge elsewhere in the country or abroad.
Many live in rented apartments or with relatives, while others are crammed into schools-turned-shelters.
Hassan, 37, grew up in the Mraijeh district of southern Beirut, where Israeli fighter jets targeted Hashem Safieddine, widely seen as Nasrallah’s most likely successor.
Despite the bloodshed, Mraijeh will always remind him of his “friends, the games we played as children, the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning, the chatting neighbors and the Ramadan festivities.”
The supermarket where he did his shopping is in ruins, and nearby shops, schools and buildings are also in ruins.
Hassan, who also asked to be identified by first name only, was told his favorite record store no longer existed.
With the war showing no signs of abating, greater losses are almost certain.
“We are afraid to return after the war and find out how many of our friends have died, just like in 2006,” Hassan said with a sigh.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)